All posts tagged ‘homemade’

My toddler stayed with my sister for a few days this week, giving me more spare time than I’ve had in almost three years. I used that time to get caught up on a lot of things that I’ve been meaning to do including several little craft projects, and I wanted to share some of them with you. Hopefully you’ll be inspired to give something new a go.

My son loves playing Angry Birds and I wanted to make him a real life set that he could throw around without damaging anything. I found some polystyrene balls in a local craft shop and painted them green using acrylic paint; I pierced them with hat pins pushed through rolls of sticky tape prior to painting so I could leave them to dry without them being in contact with any surfaces. Once dry I used Sharpie markers and stickers to create the features. For the pigs I simply used white dot stickers to create the eyes and drew the rest; for the birds I used the white dot stickers and also a yellow flower sticker which I cut up, using its petals for the beak. I initially went for an open beak using two petals however this doesn’t look right on the finished bird and so for the second I used a single petal instead.

I’m not very good at sewing, so I tried to gather all the pieces I would need. The pleated skirt was from an anime costume that I already had. I bought a white blouse and a clip-in tie that was close to the Gryffindor colors. I added a gray sweater and black knee socks that I had in my closet. Black mary jane shoes was the last part that I had to buy.

The hardest part of the costume was the robe. I had my black college graduation robe in my closet, and I decided to alter it for my purposes. I removed the zipper, and then hemmed the part where the zipper had been. I got a Gryffindor patch off of eBay and sewed that on to the robe.

The robe was fairly easy to make, and the rest just had to be gathered. For this reason, making your own homemade costume from the Harry Potter universe is pretty easy.

I should note that I did wear this costume to Dragon*Con that year, and it was not a good idea because I roasted the whole time I was wearing it. September in Georgia is not a good time to wear a costume with so many layers.